


pressed a thought into the wayside

by Estirose



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7576813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Patty is somehow the unofficial librarian of the group now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	pressed a thought into the wayside

**Author's Note:**

> I read the novelization after I saw the movie, and it only made me love Patty more for its all-too-short description of Patty's love of books that goes with her love of knowledge (at least of New York City). Also, while I am not in the field, I trained as a library tech, and I could see Patty learning how to be one because she'd be interested once she started talking to the librarians around the city about what she does.
> 
> The title is from the poem "Marginalia" by Billy Collins.

Patty has always loved books, but she never thought she'd finally get to read them all day, as part of her job. She never trained to be a formal historian or librarian, after all, even as she adores sharing information with whoever is willing to listen to her. 

It's nice to have a job now where people are willing to do just that. Sure, sometimes her job can be weird and requires her to go out in a uniform with a pack on her back, or go near Holtzmann's experiments. But most of the time, it's research, and talking to people, and making them feel protected. Making them feel less afraid, at least of the ghosts.

And she's still a civil servant, even if she's indirectly one nowadays. No civil service title would describe what she does for a living. Even the loosest ones don't cover researching and busting the paranormal. 

The librarians of the city see her in a way as one of them now. Little Patty, who grew up among the stacks, now does quite a bit of work in the field - she keeps the Firehouse's resources in order, no matter how forgetful her friends are; she helps them find things and research. The librarians point her to resources on how to maintain a library of her own, how to organize, acquire, and purge if she needs to. (Not that she does much purging, not in her library, not yet.)

Her little, physical library is not much, but it is growing. She's found out how to get old microfiche machines for what's not scanned into vast electronic databases, and how to get the old fiche that might prove important someday. How to care for it, too. The local city college has classes for that library stuff, and her friends in the various and sundry branches have told her what the best classes to take are and what to get out of them. Being a librarian in all but name is much harder than she ever thought.

And of course, she's protective of her books, her photos, her microfiche, her own laptop that she uses for her online lookups. Her books are as far away from Holtzmann's experiments as she can possibly get them, and Holtzmann and the others are forbidden upon pain of death to get anything experimental - or not so experimental - near the resources. Even getting anything upon the antique card catalog - less a useful item in itself than a way to protect her collection - is strictly forbidden unless someone wants to face her wrath.

More often than not, it's not a problem. The others - even Holtzmann - respect her and what she does, and don't break her rules. Very occasionally someone gets carried away, but she's learned how to handle it. After all, her books are important, but so are her friends. All of them. She in turn knows that none of them would do anything to her collection on purpose - even for a practical joke.

It makes all those hours of reading, of learning, of sitting in that little MTA booth so much worth it. Because after all, while being a MTA worker wasn't a bad job, she wouldn't trade this one for anything else in the world.


End file.
